Galapagos – Day 9 (May 5)

Time to see the turtles!!!

Morning activity was the Highlands, a turtle farm!  We went on a hunt to find the giant tortoise! Our favorite naturalist Graciella brought us all around looking for these famous creatures!  We saw a couple in a mud puddle that had just fishing the mating process – proof by the mud on the female’s back.  Very cute fellas!

We saw another big fella eating passion fruits. Such powerful jaws!  We could have sat and watched for hours!

After our time on the farm we headed back to town!  We had the option of staying in town during the time between tours, so we did! Would give us time to visit the Darwin Center without the big crowds and have a nice lunch in town!

We started off to the Center, heat of the day, but cooler than it would be for the afternoon tour! We saw all the baby turtles – so cute and almost cuddly!  They are kept in pens so the birds and other wild life wont eat them!  Next to the baby pens is an outdoor pen with babies (toddlers) that were a little bit bigger and more able to fend for them selves! 

We took a walk through the pens of the other giant tortoises – some lades,  - a little gaggle of ladies with the one matriarch keeping order!  In a pen across the train were some giant fellas. A couple were eating when we entered, another 2 were crashing through the woods in the back, and one was napping in the shade! They were so big, with such cute faces!  Around the bend we saw Lonesome George – a 100 year old tortoise that is the last of his kind. They found 2 females that were closely related and put them in his pen, but he has showed no interest. Eventually they might need to clone him!

It was finally time to leave the center and feed our grumbling tummies! We misjudged a bit, and didn’t realize the Galapagos and Ecuador actually had siesta. So we missed a few stores that were closed. But our naturalist suggested Herman’s for our meal, and we gave it a shot! We chose empanadas as the safest choice (aka – not ,not on the boat, could get sick).  At the end of the meal I requested the bill – “puedo tener la cuenta” and the waitress went away and never came back – so we came to the conclusion that I somehow managed to call her a dirty hoar in the process of the request! 

We had a great day and were thrilled to pieces to see the tortoises!